115 



(3) All portions of tlie forest undergoing; reproduction or 

 ■containing very young growth should he entirely closed to 

 grazing. 



(4) In the lower hills, the upper strip of forest hordering 

 -on the pasture land should, in most cases, be closed to all 



grazing. 



(5) The number of aninaals allowed to graze should be 

 -proportionate to tlie area concerned and to the quantity of 

 fodder available. 



(6) No animal should be allowed into the forest before the 

 season at which the young crop of grass of the year appears. 



As regards the exclusion of goats and sheep, it is not 

 ;meant that these animals must necessarily be kept out of 

 all wooded areas. This is not always possible or advisable : 

 what is meant is that wooded areas within which browsing 

 animals are allowed cannot be subjected to any regular 

 method of forest treatment. Money spent on works of 

 •forest improvement in such areas will generally be wasted, 

 and the best thing will be to abandon the area in question 

 as • forest.' 



Trees are not safe against injury from cattle, sheep, etc., 

 until they have attained a sufficiently considerable size for 

 their young shoots to be out of reach. Even then damage, 

 especially as regards reproduction, is caused by the trampling 

 .and hardening of the surface-soil. Not merely forests there- 

 fore which have been felled, but also those which are about 

 to be felled, should generally be closed to grazing in order 

 to enable the soil to attain the condition suitable for the 

 germination of seed. It thus follows that it is only in forests 

 which are exploited at a considerable age that grazing to any 

 great extent is possible. Coppice compartments exploited at 

 a low age, can at the best be only opened for a very few 

 years at a time. Forests worked by the selection method 

 ought, strictly speaking, to be always closed ; because repro- 

 duction is going on all over the area. Where total closure is 

 impossible, means must be taken in some cases to exclude 

 :grazing from certain areas which are about to be felled. 

 Closure against grazing can, in the absence of fencing, only 

 be effcijtively carried out if the portion closed has good 

 natural boundaries, such as streams or deep ravines. Hence 

 the importance, for one reason, of choosing as blocks natural 

 isub-divisions of a forest. Blanks requiring to be re-stocked 



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